As we get sucked into the awards season vacuum again, I grabbed hold of a few of my like-minded film-freaks (follow them on Twitter if you don’t already) to ask them about some of the performances over the years, and the responses came thick and fast. So with quite a number of my own, I ought to let them do the talking about Oscar absentees. Here are the first 5 of a fascinating list of 100 (enough to make you dizzy) men and women that the Academy let slip away.

I come here to praise Jimmy Stewart’s un-nominated Vertigo performance, not bury those who were nominated in his place. Just looking at the list of nominees, Stewart’s spirit can rest easy that his towering performance in what is arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s most personal film has more…

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2 responses to “100 Performances Oscars Forgot – 1/20”

I do wish I had time to watch more films, although for some reason when I watch a film I tend to stay away from the Academy award winning type movies… and I’m not quite sure why. I always suspect there’s some strange fear of being exposed to something popular, and therefore something which people have already made up their minds about. What if I don’t quite GET IT, you know? I think I feel safer watching bad sci-fi movies. Maybe I’m just getting old…

I’m sure your suspicion is correct. If we think of ourselves as artists, there’s a resistance to align with what is popular unless we can see additional justifications of special quality. Fortunately, something popular may also be excellent. I wouldn’t worry about your ability to “get it”. We get what we get, and over time we get more, and differently. Whatever allows you to connect to a work has value, whether it is a commonly shared sentiment or not.

On the other hand, part of the fun and mystery is in realizing a work need not be excellent in order to be popular, only notable in some way. Plan 9 From Outer Space is truly terrible, even the title, but it has more fans than the average release. No one has been able to figure out what guarantees popularity beyond unpredictables like timing, topicality, zeitgeist and luck.

Cinema is a collaborative art by design, like music and dance. The work is usually created by groups, often numbering hundreds of contributors. It’s going to reflect more of a consensus expression or interpretation of the idea content, even though it all begins with a writer and their individual vision.